Turn Thy Enemies Closer
by Arwen17evenstar
Summary: Anna/Dracula pairing. Rated M. Dubious consent. Essentially a rewrite of a very old story I wrote 10 years ago, but still it's own unique, separate story. It will not be exactly the same as the original.
1. Chapter 1

**Backstory:** So I originally set up a separate account for my Dracula stories because I wanted to create a ton of Dracula stories and just have them all on that one account. Of course, that never happened, so I'm going to leave the original story where it is, but keep writing new stuff from my main account.

This will be an entirely separate story, but will focus on a similar path I did in the original story. I really want to dig in and explore the rules and world I had in my head during the original story, but never talked about explicitly in the original, only alluded to its effects. The original story is posted here: s/3625690/1/Dreams-and-Desires You don't have to read this story to enjoy or understand this new story. They are totally separate, although based on a similar internal headcanon.

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**Chapter 1**

"_Oh my god, you've been bitten."_

The last thing Anna Valerious remembered was Aleera's fist coming out of nowhere and knocking her to the ground. Then being wrenched up by her ankle before the blood rushing to her head caused her to pass out.

Her next instant of hazy awareness was of walking into a brilliantly lit, but macabre ballroom full of gorgeously dressed dancers. A man was carefully escorting her through the doors as servants bowed low before him. Then her mind seemed to fall back to sleep again, though her feet continued to move forward of their own accord.

-~~~~#####~~~-

Princess Anna was certainly a well-trained warrior with a naturally stubborn mind. It had been quite a chore for Dracula to keep her constantly unconscious or in his thrall ever since the human woman had been unceremoniously dumped at his feet more than a day ago. Aleera had preened at him like a cat expecting praise for laying dead rodents at her master's feet. But Dracula was indeed very pleased Aleera hadn't killed her… because the princess would make excellent bait for luring Van Helsing into his trap and securing the Frankenstein monster for his progeny. It also gave Dracula a little time to play with his food and have some fun before finally killing them all. Nothing sweetened ultimate victory better than a little time to gloat and rub some salt into the wounds of his enemies. His most ancient enemies, Gabriel Van Helsing and the very last descendant of Valerious the Elder, would both die tonight, and then his victory over the entire human race would be assured for all eternity.

Smirking lightly to himself, he slightly relaxed his numbing hold on the young woman's mind.

"_How does it feel to be a puppet on my string?"_

-~~~~#####~~~-

Anna awoke slightly from her dreamy haze when the man tugged roughly on her, forcing her body to slam into his. Then she felt the touch of sensuous and soft lips upon her own. He kissed her roughly and insistently, with a dominating force. A low heat blossomed in her lower belly, but then she finally realized who she was kissing, and tried to struggle, only to find her body was not at her command. The count dipped her back roughly, as punishment for her brief defiance. Anna quickly put two-and-two together as Dracula waltzed her gracefully through the other dancers in the frigid ballroom.

"I won't let you trade me, Count." she vowed to him in a low voice.

"I have no intention of trading you." Dracula smiled at her, and paused in front of the mirror.

Anna gasped in horror as she realized she alone in the ballroom had a reflection in the gigantic mirror.

"Do you really think you or Van Helsing will make it out of here alive tonight?" Dracula purred with satisfaction.

Dracula's pleasure deepened when he felt the presence of two human minds enter his domain. It was absurd and ludicrous that humans thought they could hide their presence from vampires. Both their human scent and the feeling of their mortal minds gave them away instantly. But Dracula had already instructed all of his people to play dumb for now. The game had finally begun.

-~~~~#####~~~-

Van Helsing spotted Anna immediately. Dracula had dressed her in a bright, blood red dress, in direct contrast to all of the dark colors the other dancers were wearing. Clearly, Dracula was mocking him by making his target so obvious, daring him to try to steal the Princess from the arms of the Evil Beast himself. Van Helsing eyed the flying trapeze artists. He was determined to skewer the evil bastard and rescue Anna quickly before Dracula hurt her.

Dracula felt Van Helsing's approach and dipped Anna. He wanted to kill Anna quickly and swiftly in front of Gabriel. Let that death sit on Gabriel's overblown conscience for awhile. Let him gloat over her dead body. Then he would slay Gabriel himself once and for all.

Dracula's fangs punctured Anna's neck and he began to drink her dry. Carl, realizing what was happening, shoved a fire-eater at Dracula. Dracula's cloak caught fire and Van Helsing lunged forward with a silver sword soaked in holy water. Anna lay near-death on the ground, but as Van Helsing sliced into Dracula, his hot vampiric blood splashed across her dress and face.

Wasting no time on a howling Dracula caught on fire, Van Helsing scooped up Anna and bolted for the doors, with Carl at his heels. Still holding true to their Master's orders, the other guests did nothing to stop him.

But it wasn't long before Dracula sent the entire ballroom after them. Thankfully, Carl's fiery device killed them all, but Dracula fled with his prize, the Frankenstein monster, to his castle.

Van Helsing was left to care for a bleeding and dying Anna. He took her to the first healer he could find.

-~~~~#####~~~-

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**Please review! Any thoughts, questions, or comments you have!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The healer labored over Anna for several hours, but she had lost too much blood. With his acute werewolf-enhanced hearing, Van Helsing listened as her heartbeat finally came to a stop. Anna slipped quietly into death.

Van Helsing was the last to leave Anna's bedroom where her cooling body lay. He paused briefly to pull a sheet over her and touched his fingers to eyes. Then swept out of the room. He had a job to do. Now was not the time to grieve.

Van Helsing passed through the mirror to Dracula's lair. He would avenge Anna's death and rescue the Frankenstein monster.

-~~~~#####~~~-

-~~~~~~~~ _(Van Helsing succeeds in killing Aleera and almost killing Dracula.)~~~~~~~~~~_-

-~~~~#####~~~-

Dracula injected the cure into his own arm before Van Helsing's werewolf venom could kill him. As the last stroke of midnight faded, Gabriel lost his mind to the wolf and ran off into the forest.

While Dracula was no longer poisoned, the battle had been vicious. He had lost far too much blood to heal effectively. Aleera was dead. Verona, Marishka, and all of his progeny were also dead. Van Helsing had seen to the effective murder of his entire family. For the first time in 400 years, Dracula was once again, the only living vampire in the world.

As his mind faded in and out of consciousness, it stretched out into the vast emptiness around him. An emptiness that had once been filled with the incessant chatter of the thoughts of his brides…. and if he cared to listen, his more distant relatives, vampires his brides and other descendants had created. The silence inside his own head was absolutely deafening and unnatural after 400 years of constant companionship. On top of that, the horrible price of his werewolf antidote was a side effect that would make him barren for all eternity. The antidote was potent. He would never again have to fear a bite from a werewolf, rendering Dracula truly immortal at last. But the ultimate price for this was the loss of his ability to create more of his kind. Hence, why he had saved the antidote, to only be used if there was absolutely no other choice but to take it.

However, he had never dreamed he would end up in a situation so desperate that someone would manage to kill every single member of his family, and then force him into a situation where he had to take the antidote. That was the ultimate cruel irony. Truly immortal at last, but now utterly, utterly alone for all eternity. His sanity almost collapsed under the weight of it all.

So consumed in his despair, he almost overlooked the slight whisper at the farthest reaches of his mind. Turning all his focus on this thread, the flickering light of some other being he was connected to, helped him struggle to his feet.

He was too weak to sense who it was exactly, but someone somewhere had survived the slaughter of his family. He would feed first, and then focus all of his attention on finding this person.

-~~~~#####~~~-

Anna awoke in silence and darkness. She realized she was home in bed, but the house was icy and silent. No fires had been lit. She had been left lying in the dark and the cold like a forgotten corpse. She dragged herself out of bed and stumbled over to the mantle to try to light a fire in the grate. Warmth, she needed some warmth.

As she struggled to get a fire going, her mind flashed through everything she could remember, up until the excruciating bite from Dracula himself. She clutched hastily at her neck in response to the vivid memory. Her neck was clean. No wounds or scars to be felt. Now she wondered if she had dreamed it all. Maybe it was just a nasty nightmare after all. _Where the hell was Van Helsing?_ He'd drugged her before to go after Dracula. Maybe he had done so again. _How dare he?_ Anna was going to murder him as soon as she found him again.

Failing to light a fire for the fourth time, Anna felt pain creeping in at the edges of her mind again. She clutched her head as a wave of pain passed through her. Sorrow, anger, grief, hatred hit her like bricks one after another and she cried out from the pressure of it inside her skull.

_"Anna..."_ her mind seemed to whisper at her.

"Oh god, someone please help me..." Anna choked on a sob, curling up on the floor in agony in front of the dead, cold fireplace.

-~~~~#####~~~-

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**I'm sure you can guess what happened. But I'm hoping I can surprise you here and there with the details. Please remember to review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

After Dracula had drank his fill from a nearby village, his strength was fully restored. Immediately he turned his mind to the thread he had sensed earlier. He felt a mind at the end of that thread, though it was hazy. He flew in the direction of its source and it took him straight to the town of Valerious the Elder. With great trepidation, he landed in front of the Valerious' ancient home, as his mind solidly grasped exactly what had happened. His great rage spilled down the mind link straight into Anna Valerious' mind.

As he entered the bedroom where he sensed her presence, he found her spasming and sobbing on the cold floor. He immediately pulled back mentally, not realizing he had been pummeling her so hard with his emotions. She was still mostly human. Which meant their mental connection was tentative at best, but at such close range, her mostly human mind had no shields or strength to take the raw force of his mind and survive.

In a moment of pity, he poured soothing cold down the mind link and she quieted immediately with a sob of relief.

But as she gathered herself and looked up into his eyes with a stricken and frightened expression, his emotions immediately turned from pity to disgust. He was stuck with his sworn enemy for company for the rest of eternity? Dracula had had no intention of making her a bride at the ball. He might have teased her at the ball because he enjoyed taunting people in their misery, but he had fully intended to kill her that night along with Gabriel Van Helsing.

And he had almost succeeded in killing her until Gabriel interrupted. Vampires never left their victims alive unless they intended to turn them into vampires. Draining the body dry was essential in preventing this. So vampire instincts always encouraged gorging themselves during a meal. But thanks to Gabriel, Dracula hadn't finished.

To make matters worse, Dracula could feel his own blood in her veins as he examined her physical power aura and mind. She had been splashed and baptized in his own blood while lying there a breath from death. She must have accidentally swallowed some of the blood splashed on her when Van Helsing had cut into him with the sword. That made her worse than a bride. None of his brides had ever been allowed to drink his blood. But Anna now had it inside of her.

His mind reached out in fury at the ultimate insulting irony to his continued existence. In his fury, he would crush her mind. She would die screaming. But Anna sensed the wave of vicious anger coming at her and she broke eye contact, burying her head underneath her arms and cringing.

Dracula once again paused at the sight, indecision raging within him. Finally, he turned with a dramatic flurry and flew from the room, leaving Anna where she sat.

He wanted to kill her, but he couldn't. All of his vampiric instincts screamed at him not to harm kindred, especially a being sharing his own direct blood. So he left her there, and returned to his icy fortress to brood in silence.

-~~~~#####~~~-

Anna did not fully understand what had happened or why Dracula had left her alive. But she could sense his mind hovering at the edge of her consciousness. It felt like a great dark beast had gone back to his cave to lick his wounds. Her mind shrank back from the hostility she could feel pouring off of it.

She scrambled downstairs, looking for anything to eat or drink. Maybe it was just the fright Dracula had given her, but now she was ravenous. She gulped down water and tried to eat some leftover food, but ended up puking it all up on the floor immediately afterwards. Staring at the mess she made, and still feeling Dracula's presence slithering around at the edges of her mind, she burst thru the back door, running into the snow barefoot and into the woods behind her home. She ran and ran, until she tripped and fell face first into the snow and dead leaves. Breathing heavily, but leaving herself lying there for awhile, she cried silently to herself.

Until a delicious scent wafted towards her and distracted her from her overwrought emotions. Mindlessly, she followed the scent deeper into the woods, and happened across a rabbit caught in a hunter's trap. Without thinking, she snatched at the rabbit, and sank her teeth into its sweet flesh, draining it dry in seconds. Her vision immediately sharpened. The moon suddenly seemed to provide more than enough light to see by. Tossing the dead rabbit to the ground, she followed more scents even deeper into the forest…...

-~~~~#####~~~-

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_Seems like all the other fics I read either: both Anna and Dracula are insta-in-love, or at least Dracula already desires Anna, even though Anna hates him. So I thought I'd do the opposite. Dracula really doesn't like Anna. The enmity between them is mutual. After all, she is the daughter of a centuries-long family feud to destroy Dracula. He would have been ruling the world by now if not for the Valerious clan and their meddlesome ways!_

_Anna's going a bit caveman out in the woods right now. She might need a bath afterwards. XD_

**PLEASE REVIEW!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Dracula tried his best to build a wall between his mind and his new progeny, Anna Valerious. But it was like trying to keep parchment paper dry in the middle of the ocean. Emotions and thoughts of his own kept bleeding through at times, and hers occasionally leaked through as well. This never-ending, reluctant exchange of thoughts and emotions continued for months.

He could sense she was not doing well. She was feeding off the animals in the forest and isolating herself from the townspeople for fear of hurting them.

On the opposite end, all Anna could sense was this great destructive anger behind the wall between their minds, and so she continuously cringed away from it in fear and disgust.

The loneliness grew on both sides of the mental wall with every passing month. He saw no one and stayed locked up in his icy fortress, deep in the snowy Carpathian mountains. She barely saw anyone, staying locked up in her family's mansion, pretending that grief for Van Helsing was the only thing holding her back. She only ventured forth at night to feed on the blood of the forest animals.

Sunlight did not yet burn her, but it was painful and uncomfortable to her eyes, so she avoided it as much as possible. Her pale skin, insomnia, and rapid weight loss was all attributed to her grieving by the townsfolk.

Finally, she could stand it no longer. She strapped on her best hunter gear and stepped thru the mirror to Dracula's lair. If she could slay him, then the last evil would finally be gone from the world, and the insanity clawing at the edges of her mind would leave, for she would finally be dead and at peace.

-~~~~#####~~~-

Dracula stiffened the moment he felt the presence of Anna's mind within his castle walls. The insolent child! Didn't she know the meaning of a mental wall? It meant stay away, not come bursting in and forcing her presence upon him!

Without turning around, he felt her enter his inner sanctum. She was as quiet as a cat now, but he still knew exactly where she was. Her stench reached him next. She smelled of the blood of animals. A nasty smell indeed, of a decaying half-human vampire who refused to feed properly. Any strength or powers she might possess would be laughable and stunted at best due to her foul dietary choices. Her flesh was rotting away, stuck in transition. A transition that wouldn't be completed until she fed on human blood.

Dracula turned and sneered at her in disgust, grabbing her wrist at the last moment and forcing her to drop the stake at his feet.

"My dear Anna, you really do have a death wish, don't you?"

Exhausted defiance shown from her eyes, now tinted slightly blue in the darkness.  
It was the sight of those eyes that caused him to reach out on impulse and caress her face. It had been so long since he'd had any vampiric company. A year's worth of brooding over his endless fate.

She gasped in surprise at the gentle caress, despite the anger and disdain written across his face.  
Something clawed its way out of her throat before she could stop it, "Master… please..."

Dracula winced at the sound of a suffering animal that just wanted to be put out of its misery, and anger fled for a moment, leaving him cold and still.

Anna tried to jerk away in horror at what had just happened, but Dracula didn't let her. He simply pulled her closer and wouldn't let go. Like a child clinging to a long-lost doll. She squirmed for a moment, unable to break his hold with her feeble strength, and then just broke down into choking sobs. He said nothing, just gently stroked her hair until she finally went silent, having emptied herself of tears, and eventually she passed out from exhaustion.

-~~~~#####~~~-

Anna awoke nestled amongst soft pillows and black silk. A familiar scent lingered among the sheets, but before she could identify it, she caught a whiff of a much stronger scent.

Her eyes zeroed in on the bedside table where two full bottles of blood awaited her. She had downed both before her conscious mind had even made any decision. She pressed her face into a pillow in distress, realizing immediately that those bottles had contained human blood, and it had tasted so sweet and wonderful. She already felt 100% better and more clear-headed than ever before. Limiting herself to animal blood would never be the same again.

She burrowed deeper into the pillow in humiliation at her weak control, breathing deeply, trying not to panic. The scent on the sheets was so soothing to her, she almost completely relaxed and fell asleep again. Until her brain finally put two-and-two together and realized who's scent it was. Her strong and sudden revulsion caused her to fling herself out of bed backwards, and land in a jumbled heap on the stone floor with a groan on impact.

A slightly dry chuckle reached her ears and she startled again.

There was Dracula, perched in the window sill, watching her like she was some kind of fascinating insect he was about to dissect.

She looked around for anything she could use as a weapon and found nothing. This was clearly his bedroom. Everything was draped in deep blacks with trimmings of silver or gold. A splash of scarlet was seen here and there in the décor, a pillow on the plush couch, or a painting on the wall.

"What the hell am I doing in here?" Anna snarled at him.

"You passed out in my lap." Amusement still lingering slightly in his voice, "I thought about dropping you off the side of a cliff. But it seemed rather inhospitable."

She hissed at him, no words could describe her displeasure at waking up in his bed, with bottles of human blood just waiting to sabotage her months and months of effort of living off of only animal blood.

"That blood did the trick. You're almost pretty again." Dracula mocked her.

"I am going to kill you." Anna vowed, in response to the insult.

His amusement only grew. "I would love to see you try."

Then surprisingly, he produced a knife and tossed it at her feet.

Anna stared at it in shock for a moment, before snatching it up, and lunging at him with a vicious cry.  
He deftly grabbed her wrist, twisted until she was forced to let go of the knife, and then pulled her in closer. He inhaled deeply the scent of her hair. Yes, much better. After having fed well on human blood, the vile animal blood stench was already dissipating. She smelled almost completely like a normal vampire now._ Delicious….. _his instincts purred at him.

-~~~~#####~~~-

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Yeah, if Anna had just stayed away, Dracula would have resisted for longer. Now, she's made herself _**his**_ problem by barging into his castle and looking half-starved and half-mad.

**PLEASE REVIEW!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

_Delicious….._ his instincts purred at him.

Anna paused for a moment in his iron grip, overwhelmed by his scent and the dark power that seemed to radiate off him in waves of pure cold. It washed over her like a giant tidal wave, crushing all resistance. It took incredible effort to focus her mind and stop drowning in his vampiric aura. The tiny whisper of "_master..."_ in the back of her mind was what finally snapped her out of it. She went rigid with affront and then fought viciously to escape his grip. He let her go willingly and she bolted from the room.

Dracula rolled his eyes after she fled the room and went back to the book he had been reading. She wouldn't get far. She didn't have a clue of what she was.

-~~~~#####~~~-

Anna pelted down the icy, stone stairs barefoot, never feeling the cold. Running blind and scared, determined to never stop until she couldn't sense his presence anymore. Something in the back of her mind whined about this. She told it to Shut up.

After reaching the sheet of ice that was the mirror door, Anna stopped and stared in dismay. The mirror only worked one way. She punched the ice with all the strength of a female vampiress and it didn't even crack, only jarred her hand to the bone.

Wincing slightly and rubbing her knuckles, she pressed her back against the icy mirror wall and slid down it to the ground. Castle Dracula stood tall and strong in front of her mockingly. She buried her head between her knees.

The bad thing about being a vampire was she could literally sit for centuries and never freeze or die. The even worse thing about being a vampire is that the sun still rose and set at Castle Dracula. As she sat there, covered in snow from the gusting winds around her, Anna could feel sunrise was soon. If she didn't take shelter, she would burn to death. Before the human blood Dracula had sabotaged her with, when it had just been animal blood, she could bear sunlight though she hated it, now she knew it would destroy her. That animalistic voice in the back of her mind was telling her so, urging her to move inside. She grit her teeth and ignored it. She was not going back inside that castle. If she was truly and fully transitioned into a vampire now, then she'd rather face the sun.

-~~~~#####~~~-

Dracula sighed. He could sense the little idiot outside, defying her better nature and all common sense. Reaching past their mental barrier, he sent a firm command: _"Anna, Come."_

"_NO" _was the only response he got.

"_You won't like it if you make me come out and get you."_

Anna just snarled at him thru the mind link and tried to close the connection in vain.

Dracula severed the connection himself, but teleported immediately to her location, grabbed her, and teleported back into his inner sanctum. She started to fight him tooth and nail to run back outside again, so he wrenched her down into the coffin with him and froze it solid, ending her ceaseless struggles and instantly putting both of them to sleep.

-~~~~#####~~~-

For Anna, it was the longest, most restful sleep she had ever experienced. A deep oblivion lacking all discomfort. When night fell, and the ice slowly melted and receded from her body, the only thing she became aware of was her ravenous hunger blocking out all rational thought. The thirst was so much stronger than before. She scrambled out of the stone coffin. She needed to find an animal in the forest NOW, before she completely lost it and hurt someone. She staggered towards one of the huge open windows and looked out on the snowy mountain range in a panic, not a single forest in sight. Nothing but sharp cliffs and deep ravines to be seen for miles and miles. Her stomach growled loudly.

There was the sound of glass chinking behind her and she whipped around to see the master holding a bottle out to her. She ripped it out of his hands and gulped it down in an instant. Anticipating her reaction, he grabbed the bottle back from her before she could shatter it against the stone floor.  
"If you didn't wait until the last minute to feed, you would have some control over when and where." He patted her on the head like she was some kind of wild pet that had succeeded at something. She smacked his hand away. He smirked. "But I suppose dining for want instead of need would mean actually stopping long enough to enjoy the sensation."

"I want animal blood." Anna demanded.

Dracula scoffed in disgust at the idea of it. "No, you don't."

"Yes I do! I don't want any more of your human blood!"

"You will drink human blood from the bottle. Or..." an excited gleam entered Dracula's eyes, "I can bring a human back for you to play with."

Anna trembled even as the demon in the back of her mind jumped in glee. Dracula didn't miss it for a second. The way her pupils dilated and her breath caught for a moment, even as she shook like a leaf. He might have to do it. Just to mess with her and see how it would turn out.

-~~~~#####~~~-

**PLEASE REVIEW! Let's me know you're reading and enjoying it! **


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Dracula showed her to a bedroom full of deep midnight blues laced with silver.

"You can stay here, like a civilized lady. Or I can throw you back into my coffin if I ever sense you trying to stay out in the sun again." he threatened her.

"Then get out of my room." Anna ordered him.

He bowed at her mockingly and left her alone.

-~~~~#####~~~-

Anna didn't know how to transform and fly, which meant she was stuck at Castle Dracula. The mirror only worked one way. You could get to the castle via the mirror, but if you wanted to leave, you had to fly out.

Anna had been on a suicide mission when she first passed through that mirror. No return journey had been planned. She would attempt to kill Dracula, and he would either kill her or she would succeed in killing him and then die herself automatically, since as his progeny, it would be impossible to remain alive after the death of the master vampire.

But Dracula didn't kill her, even though she kept trying to kill him. For weeks, he fed her, clothed her, and swatted her away like an insignificant fly any time she tried to attack.

Dracula seemed almost invigorated by the constant attempts on his life, despite his clear disdain towards her every attack.

Anna could still feel the mental barrier between the two of them that Dracula had placed. Which only infuriated her more. It meant he wasn't even trying, he was literally playing with her because he was bored.

"Will you stop that? Why do you never finish me off?" Anna yelled at him in frustration, as he took his teeth away from her throat and walked away casually.

His lips twisted into a small smirk, "Where would the fun in that be?"

Which brought another scream of frustration and Anna leaping at him blindly.

He dodged gracefully and in retaliation pinned her to the wall, holding both of her wrists above her head with only one hand.

His eyes wandered all over her face as if memorizing it. After months of feeding her only human blood, she looked flawless and smelled incredible. Her eyes glowed an icy blue as pure as his own, as she unknowingly barred her fangs at him in defiance. He shifted slightly so he could press a knee between her legs. Her breath caught in her throat at the sudden bold move and a slight blush appeared immediately across her pale cheeks.

"Anna…." he sighed in reluctance. It was getting harder and harder to resist his natural urges to mate with her.

He didn't personally want her, and he knew the feeling was mutual. But what was also mutual was both of their vampiric instincts telling them to go for it anyway.

_This is why vampires never turn people they don't like into vampires!_ He thought to himself as he shook his head in frustration. It only muddied the water and caused hatred, lust, and confusion.

But Anna's turning had been a total accident and now he was stuck with just her for company for the rest of eternity, thanks to bloody Van Helsing and the werewolf antidote. He offhandedly wondered why his sanity was still intact from all of this.

Against his better judgment, he rocked into her, grinding his leg into the apex of her thighs. Her breathing sped up and her pupils dilated. Surprisingly, she didn't protest and allowed him to continue the motion, moving her hips slightly to better aid his motion.

Taking this as a positive sign, he trailed a few lingering kisses up the column of her throat until he found her mouth. As he pressed tender kisses there, Anna seemed to come back to reality and drew back from him. He let her go, almost disturbed as she was by the sudden turn of events.

She couldn't look him in the face for a week afterwards, and completely stopped her assassination attempts. Life was rather boring again, he decided.

-~~~~#####~~~-

As Anna approached her bedroom, she smelled something so sharp and fresh that her fangs were already growing in her mouth when she ripped open the door. Strewn across her bed was a beautiful young woman, cuts covered her body, dripping crimson onto the deep blue sheets. Anna paused. She wanted to help her, but she knew that if she touched that girl now she would lose control and kill her. Dracula stood smirking nearby and she glared at him. She blinked in surprise when he held out a bottle of blood. Without hesitation she accepted it, for she was one second from leaping onto the bed and draining the poor woman dry. As soon as Anna finished drinking the first bottle, Dracula handed her a second one.

"I don't need this..." Anna immediately objected.

"You're going to drink it for pleasure." Dracula purred at her, "and thereby learn some control. You want to save the girl, don't you?"

Dracula put a hand on her shoulder and turned her to look at the bed again. "Do you really think you can keep from hurting her even now?" he suggested in her ear.

No, she couldn't be assured of that. Yes, she wasn't starving anymore, but she also wasn't full and satisfied either. She looked down with trepidation at the bottle of blood in her hand and then back over at the bed where the girl's breathing was getting more ragged.

Anna brought the bottle to her lips, intending to make it go as quickly as possible.

"No, don't guzzle it. That never leads to satisfaction." Dracula ordered. "Let yourself taste it. Savor it."

Against her better judgment, Anna tried to slow down. Frankly, the taste of it was orgasmic and she could feel the heat building in her belly. She leaned back into his chest as she finished the bottle, and his arms snaked around her waist. As he kissed her slowly, she could taste the girl's blood in his mouth. _Oh._  
But she couldn't stop. Touching him, the taste of blood in their mouths, the smell of the girl on the bed, her personal demon painting scarlet images across the surface of her mind. It was all too much. Her knees buckled, but he caught her, carried her to the bed and laid her against the bleeding skin of the mortal woman. Anna sank her fangs into her neck and drained her dry.

-~~~~#####~~~-

**Oh poor Anna. Dracula is hot and has literally nothing better to do with his time anymore except focus on corrupting her slowly. **  
**PLEASE REVIEW!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Anna awoke to the smell of blood, arousal, and the master's musk. Still half-asleep, she arched her back in a long overdue stretch, before turning over and nuzzling the silk sheets and cool flesh next to her. She felt full, well-rested, and content. The master's fingers whispered down the length of her spine and she purred at the sensation.

She moved on top of him and felt his warm desire pressing against her inner thigh. She gasped in delight. With some help from him, she moved her hips over the top of it and slid down to sheath him. A perfect fit, smooth as silk. She began to rock her hips, he clutched at them to urge her motion on.

Her eyes rolled back into her head in ecstasy, as her mouth gaped at the sky, riding him harder, faster, to their final climax. Just as she came, her eyes drifted to the left for the first time and noticed the cold corpse of a human woman. She was clearly dead. Her neck ravaged by a vampire. Anna wondered at the sight for a split-second before her memories finally came flooding back to her. A thrill of horror filled her just as the second orgasm hit. She cried out in pleasure and fear. "Oh god… no, no, no!"

Dracula grabbed her wrists before she could do anything to harm herself, and flipped them, pinning her to the bed, his cock still sheathed inside of her.

"No, please stop, please, please..." Anna begged.

"You did nothing wrong, Anna." he whispered into her ear. "You're a vampire. You fed. She was going to die anyway."

Anna whimpered in denial, with sorrow and terror engulfing her mind.

Dracula countered by filling her mind with endless scenes of blood and sex, blotting out traumatized-Anna for a moment.

She squirmed in desire beneath him. Letting go of her wrists, he trailed kisses down her body before reaching the apex of her thighs. He began to pleasure her. Long, skillful licks along her slit. She gripped the sheets, tearing them slightly as she twisted and turned, while he drove her higher with his skilled tongue. She turned her head to stare at the dead girl as she came, her demon reveling in the memory of the taste of her sweet blood.

-~~~~#####~~~-

Over the next few days, any time Anna started to panic over her memories, the master made her numb. He poured soothing cold down their mind link until she felt dully hollow. She could think so clearly in those moments... though she couldn't feel anything about what had happened. Dracula was right. The girl would have died either way. She was simply bait set to mess with Anna. To have her feed on a human for the first time.

It was ironic that Dracula taking away her emotions allowed her clarity of thought in regards to his true nature. He was the King of Vampires. He obviously believed he had the right to take life whenever he saw fit. Even with her emotions off, Anna didn't see it that way. She was an unnatural demon, a shadow of a person that should have died…. not some kind of dark god allowed to judge who should live and who should die at any given moment.

She had also thrown her virginity away like it was nothing that same night. It hadn't hurt at all, probably one of the perks of being a vampire. It had happened naturally, as if she had done it a thousand times. But afterwards, she had sat in numb shock for hours in a dark corner of the castle, staying as far from Dracula as possible. She had to escape. She couldn't stand another moment of this. _Murder and sex apparently c__ome__ naturally to a vampire, but not flying? _Anna stared out at the frigid mountain ranges in desperation. No wings sprouted from her back, no matter how she willed it.

-~~~~#####~~~-

Dracula did not molest her nor present her with any more living humans. He seemed content now to wait to see what she would do, only providing her with the usual bottles of blood.  
Anna drank more bottles than required now, and drank slowly… trying to teach herself control, in case Dracula attempted to present her with another bleeding and dying victim. Next time, she wouldn't fall to temptation, she would have control of herself.

Far too quickly, the taste of blood became a pleasure for her and she looked forward to drinking it. Because she was no longer rushing through the process, she began to take notice of the subtle hints of difference between types of blood, such as the age and health of the person Dracula likely took the blood from. Younger, healthier people obviously tasted better than the old or the sick. She could also tell if the human had been a heavy meat-eater or ate mainly plants. The vegetarian humans tasted so much better than the meat-eaters, probably because their health was higher. She had never realized this about human biology until after becoming a vampire. Humans were not natural carnivores, though they constantly tried to be.

The cold blood from the bottle still didn't compare to the fresh, hot blood she had drained from the young woman, but it would do.

The test of her new resolve came sooner than she would have liked. She wandered into Dracula's inner sanctum to pick up a bottle of blood on her own, only to find a human woman waiting for her.  
Anna froze like a deer caught in a predator's gaze. Dracula smirked at her, and then gently sank his teeth into the woman's neck. The girl moaned in ecstasy, as his hand gripped her waist possessively.

Anna was upon them in an instant, but hesitated, torn between wanting to stop him and wanting to join him. Watching Dracula feed, it brought back every memory and nightmare she had had about the feeling of her fangs in the warm flesh of the previous girl. Dracula stopped feeding suddenly, gripped Anna's wrist, and tugged her slightly closer. "You can make it pleasurable for her. Just be gentle." he teased.  
Anna's eyes followed the path of blood sliding down the woman's neck into her decolletage. Anna felt a sudden, overwhelming desire to rip the girl's clothes off and see her body fully. She balked at that thought and licked the blood instead. Trying to calm down and regain control, she realized that lesbian-oozing thought had sneaked past the mental barrier and come from Dracula himself. She almost breathed a sigh of relief at that fact, until she sensed Dracula was now mentally undressing her too. Her inner demon loved it and got excited again.  
"Feed from her gently and I'll show you how to fly..." Dracula bribed her.  
_Oh, he is very clever indeed._ Anna thought to herself, cold rage building within her at the skillful manipulation.  
Mustering every last shred of her self-control, Anna leaned forward and sank her fangs into the other side of the girl's neck, treating her as if she were made of glass. Delicious, hot blood gushed into Anna's mouth as the girl moaned again. It was beyond erotic. She could smell the girl's arousal, Dracula's, and her own, combining into the most sinful scent of decadence. As Anna continued to feed, Dracula started feeding from the other side of the girl's neck again. As he did, he pushed Anna's mind against the girl's, crushing them together mentally, so Anna could fully experience the arousal she was creating in her victim. Anna grew very wet between her thighs, but tried to focus on something else. _I__sabel__… _the girl's name drifted through her mind. Anna snatched at it, along with other memories of the girl's life. One sure thing fixed itself in Anna's mind, she didn't want to end this girl's life, she wanted to turn her. _What?!_ No, that last thought had come from her inner demon. But it enabled Anna to find the strength to stop drinking.

Dracula stopped drinking as well, rather impressed Anna had actually managed to stop. It usually took longer for newly-created vampires to gain that kind of self-control to stop drinking once they had already begun.

"You're going to let her live." Anna ordered him.  
"And why should I do that?" he snorted, about to resume his feeding.  
In a moment of panic and unable to think of any way to stop him, she let her inner demon do the talking: "Because you're going to fuck her while I watch, and then I'm going to turn her. She's mine."  
Anna's expression blanched at those words even as Dracula's eyes darkened in desire at the idea.

"My dear, you have a deal."

-~~~~#####~~~-

**Anna just dug herself an even deeper hole.  
New chapters coming very soon! PLEASE REMEMBER TO REVIEW!**

-~~~~#####~~~-

**Extra Notes:**

I just uploaded 2 brand-new Dracula fanvids to youtube. They are not based on this fanfic, they are their own unique stories, but they include Dracula/Anna too.  
youtube DOT com/watch?v=mjA1qcHJoTk  
youtube DOT com/watch?v=GW_-CQdx8zY  
You can also watch every clip of Dracula back-to-back from the movie haha: youtube DOT com/watch?v=xdZAnIHKbFg I call it Dracula-vision.

One of my reviewers mentioned there needs to be more "quality" content in the van helsing fanfic section and I agree. During the past couple months, I actually read through every single story in the van helsing section that even mentions Dracula as one of the primary characters. There is a TON of crazy misspellings/grammar issues and really poor writing in general. I'm not a great writer, but next to all of that…. I can see where my reviewer's comment is coming from. What I decided to do was create a list of the "best stories" for Dracula. Hopefully, this helps people find the "quality stuff" and not have to wade through all of the poor quality writing out there. I have the full list on my "annadracula" profile account: /u/1311500/annadracula Just look at the favorites list to see it. I also created a community with the same list here: fanfiction DOT net/community/Dracula-addicts-we-are-not-his-girlfriends-we-are-his-lunch/132066/  
**Please follow this community if you like it! Following the community will also alert you via email when I add any stories in the future to the list!**

Not all of the stories in my favorites list are Anna/Dracula, but they are always female/Dracula, either the brides or a decently written OC female character that didn't annoy me.

I want to give a special shout-out to the very best Dracula fanfics I found:

_Remember_ is my favorite Dracula writer: "_Ink on a Page_" and "_He Doesn't See Me_" are my favorites stories of hers, but she's written other great stuff too.

"_The Brighter Side of Death_" by _Hell Harpie_ is awesome, but she recently deleted her story! I do have a personal copy I saved of it, thank god. _(I save many fanfics to my PC because authors delete so often and ruin my chances of ever getting to read it again. I will NEVER delete my fanfics. It's like burning someone else's books. They can never read it again.)  
_

Tho it has never been finished, I really loved "Blood or Bride" by Cantica10.

The absolute best Dracula fanfic I have ever read is "Dracula's Secret Keeper" by xXfireXflyXx. I later looked her up and found out she is a real published author, so that's why her writing skills are so damn good! I don't know if she'll ever return and finish her fanfics, but they're so enjoyable to read regardless.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Dracula wasted no time. He ripped at the girl's dress to reveal her undergarments. Anna backed off for a moment, horrified and enthralled, knowing if she broke their _"deal"_, he'd just kill the girl as originally planned. Anna glanced at the girl's face. She looked excited and accepting of the entire situation. Clearly evidence of Dracula's mind control, but at least the girl would have a pleasurable, instead of painful, experience.

"Isabel..." Dracula teased.

"Yes, master?" she breathlessly answered him.

"I'm going to defile you while Anna watches. What do you think of that?" His hand ran down her chest and then he twisted a nipple.

She squirmed in pleasure, "That would be wonderful, my lord. Will Anna join us?"

Dracula chuckled with mirth. "When she's ready to."

"Are you a virgin, dear Isabel?"

"Yes," she sighed as he fondled and sucked on her breasts.

"Just like our precious Anna was then." Dracula teased the entrance of Isabel's slit with his hardness, "Who would have thought she would have such filthy desires underneath it all?"

He smirked, and glanced down to where Anna was gripping her own sex through her clothes, while watching the scene unfold before her. He eased into Isabel gently. "Go on, Anna, this is all for you, as my lady commands. _Enjoy it._"

"i can't…." Anna finally choke out.

"Yes, you can." Dracula coaxed her with his words, "Let me help you."

He picked up his rhythm with Isabel squirming beneath him and reached out to help Anna slide her fingers inside herself. "You see… so wet… so perfect..." he stroked her.

Anna finally lost it and started fingering herself. The depravity of the entire thing, fingering herself while Dracula fucked another woman in front of her, it should have snapped her sanity in half. But the vampiric instinct was in control now, and all it wanted was to possess Isabel, please the Master, and luxuriate in the desires of the flesh.

After Isabel came several times by the Master's hand, Anna turned her. Instinctively, she knew what to do. She had the girl drink a small amount of Anna's own blood and left her to die from the bites on both sides of her neck.

Dracula was very pleased with himself. He couldn't make any more vampires thanks to the werewolf antidote, but Anna could. Convincing her to do it would always be the more difficult part, for it would have to be someone they were both attracted to. And why would Anna favor a girl like Isabel? Well, she was pure, innocent, exactly the kind of companion that would appeal to Anna's own, albeit rapidly deteriorating, innocence. Someone she could experience the loss of innocence with and not feel so damned for it. In other words, in Anna's mind, a possible ally against Dracula's corruption. But, in actuality, needed to satisfy the intense lusts Anna and Dracula would experience as part of their nature. There was a very good reason Dracula had needed three brides in the past, and not just one.

-~~~~#####~~~-

Dracula transferred Isabel to an empty bedroom where she could rest in comfort. Anna sat next to her, a bundle of anxiety at what she had done, and kept reaching out to stroke the girl's hair as though to reassure herself. "This was a worse idea than just letting you kill her..." Anna muttered to herself.

Hoping her thoughts were not straying into the idea of staking the girl, Dracula decided it was time for some distraction. "Anna, don't you remember? I promised to show you how to fly."

Anna whipped around immediately to fix him with an intense stare. Dracula held out his hand. She willingly took it and let herself be lead from the room.

"I'll have to possess your mind temporarily to show you how..." Dracula warned her, as they stood near an open archway, viciously cold wind billowing into the corridor.

Anna shivered. "If that's the only way to learn it…."

Grabbing her chin, he tilted her face up for eye contact and entered her mind. Anna's lips parted slightly at the sensation. Dracula went deep into her mind and seemed to occupy every crevice of it. Something deep inside purred _"Master…." _at the intrusion and reveled in it, twisting and turning in ecstasy. There was an actual physical growl from Dracula and he pulled her into his chest, seeming to find the innards of her mind highly titillating. As he slowly kissed her lips, an image of the white beast came to her and she could feel herself start to change. The process went smoothly, the power of his mind coaxing it out of her, until she was a fully winged beast.

He tossed her nonchalantly out of the archway and she began to plummet to her death. But her wings snapped open immediately and caught the wind to raise her higher. She felt the Master take off behind her and let out a wicked scream of delight. She took off at full speed and felt him give chase.

Their flight through the mountains was brief, but pleasant.

But with the Master in her mind the entire time, how could it be anything but enjoyable?

After they landed and she resumed her human form, she blushed bright red at the thoughts she had been having the entire flight.

"I told you, you wouldn't like it." Dracula murmured to her, trailing fingers down her arm, leaving goosebumps in their wake. "It brings the beast fully to the surface. Good luck denying any instincts or urges you may have while in that form. And because vampires share minds, you won't be hiding any of it either."

It was true. Anna thought to herself. Dracula's mind had been very open to hers during the flight as well. Every emotion and desire on display, especially desires concerning her body in great detail that made her blush scarlet. But her beast had been no better, sending salacious images right back at him. It was a wonder clothing hadn't been ripped off the moment they landed.

Only the centuries of bloodshed between their families had kept any semblance of propriety in place. They hated each other….and yet they didn't really hate each other, less and less by the day.

Anna came to a horrified realization in that moment. No matter what they did. They were stuck together. They were fated to be together, no matter how hard they tried otherwise or how far they might run to opposite ends of the Earth. Their minds were eternally linked, for better or for worse, and it was just a matter of time before the vampire blood in their veins finished it's work and converted them into passionate lovers.

"It's not fair." Anna pleaded with the heavens.

"When has your life or my life ever been fair?" Dracula raised an eyebrow at her, seeing all of her thoughts clearly.

-~~~~#####~~~-

**I may write some short one-shots soon. I've got some alternate ideas banging around in the my head right now. **

**PLEASE REVIEW!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Anna wandered into the room where Isabel still slept peacefully. She looked down at her new progeny with apprehension and fear. The girl's pale gold hair spilled like a waterfall across the satin pillows. Anna laid down next to her and clutched at the girl's hand. "Forgive me…." she whispered, and cried herself silently to sleep.

-~~~~#####~~~-

Isabel woke warm and content, lying on the softest bed she had ever experienced. She found the master at her back and her mother at her front, safely cocooned between them. The master seemed to realize she was awake immediately, for his grip on her waist tightened and he trailed soft kisses down her neck. His quiet movements stirred mother though and she awoke with a start, propelling herself off the bed to land in an undignified heap on the ground. Thoughtlessly, Isabel felt a giggle escape her at the sight.

"Dear Anna is always overly worried about being caught in a compromising position." the master purred in her ear with amusement.

Anna stood up with a scowl at him. "Isabel..." she held out her hand. "Come here. You don't have to stay _there_."

Isabel just looked confused. "Why?"

"Yes, Anna, why?" Dracula mocked and ran his tongue along Isabel's neck. "Come back to bed. We'll have some fun together."

Anna flung him a look of disgust, and tried again. "Isabel… where did he find you? Do you remember anything?"

Isabel's eyes widened slightly, so apparently she did remember something of her previous life, but it didn't cause her to spring away from Dracula in horror like Anna had hoped it would.

"You're vampires…." she whispered in awe.

"Yes, my love, and so are you." Dracula nuzzled her.

Anna lost hope as she watched Isabel remain completely unresistant to Dracula's overtures.

"Darling Anna likes to watch. Shall we give her a show?" his tone turning mischievous.

Isabel laughed innocently at the idea. "If it pleases her, master, if it pleases her."

"It does NOT please me." Anna spoke waspishly, and strode dramatically out of the room, as Isabel's face fell.

"Don't take it personally, Isabel." Dracula snickered. "Anna is a big liar."

-~~~~#####~~~-

At first, Dracula kept Isabel fed with bottles of blood too. She seemed more eager to please Dracula and less concerned by what had happened to her. She seemed eager to please Anna too, but Anna kept her distance from the both of them. She wandered the dark corners of the castle alone, only catching glimpses of Dracula and Isabel here and there.

Dracula slowly thinned the mental barrier between himself and Anna in stages over the course of a few more months. He was sick of constantly maintaining it, and Anna was so unreactive to the thinning of the barrier, that he figured it must not bother her much anymore.

More and more of her emotions flickered around the edges of his mind. Most of them were a depressing loneliness and mind-numbing sadness. She seemed to have lost all purpose in life without the constant desire to kill him. He could understand it. This is what she had been raised for, trained for, her entire life. Without it, there was no task left for her to complete. So she wallowed in despair and doubt. It was hard not to reach out and simply sooth her mind into submission. He could do it, if he wanted to. But he had a feeling it would only enrage her against him again.

When the barrier was at last completely gone, it felt like an alien sensation at first. Like bandages suddenly removed from an old wound.

But Anna began to slowly reach out and touch his mind at various intervals, as if to assure herself he still existed, which bewildered him. He finally got a sense that HE was her purpose in life. Whether she killed him or lived with him, his existence had always been the center of her universe, even when she had been full of hatred and hell-bent on destroying him.

So she continued to check on him with her mind. Wondering if it would help with her existential crisis, he began to reach out with his mind periodically too and brush against hers. She shied away the first time, as if unsure of his intentions, but then settled down when nothing more happened.

Those gentle and periodic mind touches eventually gave way to reluctant conversations over time.

Anna could also feel Isabel's mind completely. Anna had turned her, so Isabel could not block or hide her mind from Anna even if she tried. Anna tried her best to stay out of the girl's head, but the desire to possess her and mold her according to Anna's own desires was so strong. She could also feel when Dracula reached through Anna's mind to reach Isabel's. Anna was like a bridge between them. Dracula could control Isabel too, but it all had to be done through Anna' s mind. Which left Anna privy to every single thought passed back and forth between the two. The worst time was when Dracula took Isabel hunting for the first time. Anna experienced the entire bloody event from both their thoughts. She was sure Isabel wasn't doing it on purpose, but Dracula definitely was.  
The reason for this soon became very clear.

Dracula stopped supplying her with bottles of blood on the idea that she was, in his words, "no longer a baby and should feed herself."

Unable to return to animal blood after such an extended period of time on human blood, she took to feeding off the criminals in jail cells and bandits found along her path. The local villagers didn't dare interfere with this diet plan and had started calling her "The Merciful Angel of Death".

The locals were bewildered in that they knew Dracula was still alive and Anna Valerious seemed to be his bride, but they kept to themselves. They didn't hunt together. They were never spotted together. Dracula continued to hunt and kill at random as usual. Anna hunted only those society had already condemned for evil acts.

-~~~~#####~~~-

"Anna Dracula, I presume?" a male voice cut through her mindless bliss.

Anna hissed and dropped the male bandit she had been vigorously feeding from. "What did you just call me?!"

A fit young man twirled his revolver in his hand. "That's your name, isn't it? Or have I been misinformed about your husband's name?"

"We are _**not**_ married!" Anna shrieked at him, eyes glowing blue, fangs bared at him.

"Ah, boyfriend then?" He smirked, teasing her further, but cocking and aiming his gun at her heart.

"Actually we are just really strong acquaintances." Dracula purred suddenly from behind him. The man whipped around and shot Dracula in the chest.

"Hmmm, not bad aim. But terrible instincts to turn your back on…. _my girlfriend._" Dracula mocked him, as Anna pounced from behind and sank her fangs into his neck.

Watching Anna murder a vampire hunter right in front of him? The exquisite irony was not lost on Dracula. So much so that he couldn't resist eventually ripping her from her latest prey and snogging her senseless to get a taste of the blood in her mouth. Of course, a few minutes into that she punched him in the face and walked away with a rigid back as he laughed at her.

-~~~~#####~~~-

**So in vampire society being "sired" is automatic "marriage" in any ****vampire'****s eyes. Anna just doesn't agree with that policy.  
****It's ****kinda hilarious, because that means Isabel is really "married" to Anna and not so much Dracula. ****Anna is the last and only Bride of Dracula. Anyone else is a Bride of Anna, ****technically.**

**P****LEASE REVIEW!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

While the beast inside Anna's mind had grown so strong she could no longer fully tell where it's desires ended and her own began, she noticed that she still had the ability to disobey Dracula's orders. It surprised her because she was certain the former brides of Dracula had been completely subservient to him. What made her so special that she wasn't a total slave to his will? Was her fierce hatred of him protecting her mind? But that hatred had faded quite a lot in the past few years…. and yet she still felt no desire to obey that she couldn't resist. A strong, embarrassing desire to mate with him yes, but no desire to blindly follow his orders.

Isabel was different. She seemed exactly like the previous brides, albeit a continuing fondness for Anna, despite Anna's coldness and desire to keep her at arm's length. She guessed Isabel's unending devotion was because Anna had turned her and not Dracula. It was clear that Dracula couldn't make any more children or turn any new humans. As evidenced by the fact that Dracula had been mating with Isabel for quite some time and Isabel never became pregnant.  
Dracula had deliberately agreed to let Anna turn Isabel that day. So perhaps the only way Dracula could expand his species was through Anna. This gave Anna some comfort that she was the "gatekeeper" of this power and could indeed prevent the vampire curse from being spread to anyone else… since Isabel had been a creation when Anna was new and her control of her bloodlust still very weak. But it also terrified her because it meant Dracula would likely always look for ways to use Anna to multiple his kind. Anna had been turned into a vampire **before** Dracula had used the werewolf antidote, so her venom alone was the only one left potent in the entire world. That painted a huge target on her back. For Dracula, who would try to use her to propagate the species, and for vampire hunters, who would kill her if they discovered she was the real source of all future progeny. Dracula was truly immortal and invulnerable now thanks to the antidote, but Anna was not. She was surprised Dracula hadn't imprisoned her in some dank hole to keep his "key" to progeny production safe. But she supposed it would look suspicious to any hunters and it certainly wouldn't convince her to cooperate willingly in any evil schemes he might concoct. For whatever reason, she had the ability to disobey him, unlike the previous Brides and Isabel, so he would have to rely on trickery and manipulation to gain her cooperation.

-~~~~#####~~~-

Anna tossed another book onto the table in frustration. She had been combing the library for hours. Searching for any way to break this connection she had with Dracula. But every book about vampires was clear. Fledglings could not unsire themselves from the master who had turned them. The only useful thing she had learned was that she was indeed unique to have her free will so intact after being sired. Fledglings usually stopped at nothing to please their master. Anna couldn't decided which was worse: being a mindless and blissful slave, or having her mind intact but with no escape in sight.

What the books didn't explain is why her will was still intact after being turned. Anna rubbed her eyes in exhaustion, trying to piece the puzzle together.

Vampires were created when the victim was left near death after a bite wound, but never fully drained. Hence, the strong instinct in every vampire to utterly drain their victims to prevent accidentally siring any new vampires.

Any vampire could sire, but fledglings only possessed half the strength of the sire and were completely submissive to the sire's will. The higher in the family tree you went, the more fledglings a sire had power over. In other words, since Dracula was the King and originator of all vampires, he had total control over every vampire ever created… in theory.

But not Anna. At least, not completely. He was also the King of Manipulation, so it was often hard for Anna to parse out which of his tricks were simply in his arsenal due to him being a vampire vs something that had a special hold on her because of their blood connection.

Anna thought through her own turning. She had been near-death, almost-drained, and Van Helsing had interrupted. She couldn't see anything different about her turning compared to others, other than the fact that she was sure Dracula had meant to kill her and not turn her. Was that the key? It seemed rather stupid. Unintentional turning resulted in free will after death? That didn't make any sense to her.

Add to the fact that she seemed to be almost as strong as Dracula, judging from their contests of strength during her many previous assassination attempts. She had been too furious with him to notice that detail at the time. But looking back on it with a cooler head, she realized he had been winning because of experience, not because he had been massively stronger than her.

It was rather tempting to start fighting with him again, just to learn all of his tricks of the trade.

The only other curious thing that still weighed on her mind was why Dracula hadn't attempted to have Anna turn any more vampires to repopulate his ranks. It had been over 2 years now and it was still just Dracula, Anna, and Isabel. What was he waiting for? He had been so hell-bent on World Domination with all of those disgusting hellspawn created with his former brides. And now that every vampire except Anna and Isabel was gone? He didn't seem to be doing anything. She'd watched as he wandered from one hobby to the next, with no obvious goal in mind other than to pass the time. He didn't _seem_ to be grieving the loss of his entire species. He was always so cool, calm, and collected. But she couldn't fathom why else he had stopped his megalomaniacal plans of the past 400 years.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter ****1****1****  
**

"Anna…?" Isabel entered into Anna's bedroom to find her mistress staring listlessly out the window at the cold, gray sky. She walked up and wrapped her arms around her and laid her head on Anna's shoulder. Anna didn't shrug her off this time, which was a noted improvement. Isabel had been working on her for some time. Slowly but surely, Anna was rejecting her affections less and less.

While the Master was temperamental and restless, the Mistress was cold and always depressed. Their two competing states of mind pressed at Isabel's thoughts all the time. It was very stressful, especially when they got into fights. It made her feel like curling up in a corner and crying like a child.

But she strongly believed if she could make the Mistress happier, then the Master might cheer up a bit too. She needed to find some way to bring them together, but she didn't know how. A meal? They had come together to turn Isabel, but the Mistress never hunted with the Master. The Mistress was adamant about that. Isabel had actually tagged along occasionally with the Mistress and helped kill her favorite targets: criminals and bandits. But she always returned to hunting with the Master. He didn't place arbitrary limits. He just looked for someone healthy and kept things from getting more complicated than that.

She also never detected guilt with him during a hunt. Whereas the smell of guilt hung like a heavy perfume around the mistress, even when she was viciously ripping apart her prey with undisguised relish.

"Mistress… have you fed already?" Isabel tugged on her to get her attention again.  
"For the thousandth time, stop calling me that. And, no I haven't, not yet." Anna brushed her off.  
"We could go together." Isabel offered her.

Anna sighed, but nodded.

-~~~~#####~~~-

Two lithe white bodies sped through the sky, their keen eagle sight fixed upon the forest path below, looking for any sign of travelers. It had become harder and harder over the years for Anna to find her fill of roadside bandits. The area, ironically, had become ridiculously safe thanks to her feeding habits. Word had spread far and wide of a vampire who preyed only upon humans that did evil. Random people still died thanks to Dracula and Isabel, but overall the death toll from wandering around at night or traveling lonely forest roads had become extremely low. Thanks to Anna, vampires were still feared, but mutterings about vampires not being "entirely useless" were common nowadays. They were treated more and more like the spider you allowed to live so that it would eat the flies. Or the cats that caught the rats in the barn.

Isabel, quickly losing her patience, finally spotted two humans along the road and spiraled downward quietly to land. Anna didn't follow. Those men didn't look like bandits to her, so she refused to be a part of anything Isabel started with them.

That was when pain exploded in her left temple and she almost fell out of the sky in shock. A ferocious roar sounded in the back of her mind, coming from Dracula far away, but Anna fixed her attention on the ground below and swooped down. Isabel was pinned, shot through with stakes. The vampire hunter closed in for the kill. Anna grabbed him from behind and flung him away from Isabel. With her instincts still sharp from years of training as a human to hunt vampires, she managed to dodge at the last second as the other hunter lunged at her,

Anna quickly ripped the stakes from Isabel as she screamed in pain. Luckily, none of them had been a fatal blow. The stakes were coated in holy water and burned Anna's hands as she grabbed at them, but she got rid of them quickly.  
In fury, Anna grabbed the younger hunter, snapped his neck swiftly, and threw him at Isabel to feed from and recover her strength.  
Anna shrieked as the other hunter managed to stab her with a silver stake. He pressed her down into the earth, driving the stake deeper into her as she tried to throw him off, Isabel wailing "Mistress..!" in the background as she tried to heal fast enough to come help her.

Anna couldn't believe the inhuman strength of this man, to hold her down in the mud like this. Then she caught a whiff of wet dog and knew. This man was a werewolf. It's venom is what gave him beyond human strength.  
"Lucien, stop!" another voice cut through the chaos.

The man on top of Anna paused for a second.

"That's the one I want alive."  
"She killed Rialle!" Lucien protested and resumed trying to kill Anna.

The other man, also smelling distinctly of werewolf, ripped Lucien off of Anna like he was a doll and tossed him away. Anna caught a glimpse of this man's face and gasped. "No! It cannot be…."

Van Helsing tipped his hat at her. "Hello, Anna Valerious."

-~~~~#####~~~-

**Yeah, remember when Van Helsing ran off into the woods in the early chapters? He didn't die out there. He was busy.**


End file.
